I will say this, we don’t take more bucks than the law allows, does only. Wouldn’t hurt to take another buck, but we can find folks willing to do that with pics of what to shoot and only that buck. Had one guy send me a pic of a future shooter we were keeping an eye on and I told him I’d bury him on the property if he shot it, lol. We like to get some kids back that have already taken a smaller deer and get them waiting on one of the management bucks. I don’t post a lot of those pics just because they aren’t my kids. I will say women surprise me at how excited they get. Those emotions run high. I think they’re thrilled to death, but remorseful at the same time. I can understand that because I get the same way, especially after watching a particular buck for years and then it’s over. A lot of time, effort, guessing, and lost sleep and it’s over. But, then it’s time to find another and start the process all over again, lol.

I’ll post some videos later. Apparently YouTube has a limit on how many videos you can upload and I’ve reached it until further verification.

I’ll start a new thread later this week and show some quail hunts. Mostly shooting and nothing hit, lol.

I 100% agree with you that folks should do all they can to take care of the property they have access to....whether they own it or not. Always give back to the game how and when you can. It definitely isn't all about the kill. My deer hunting today is all about finding and homing in on a mature buck. I've been thru all the stages of a hunter and now at 60 years old....it's mostly about the challenge of getting an opportunity at an older buck....many times with a bow...not a gun. I thoroughly enjoy the food plot work, the road mowing, setting up and checking cameras, etc....way more than killing deer.

I'm very blessed too. I have access to several quality properties (for this part of Ga). One is 400 acres (24 years timber company lease), one is 900 acres (17 years timber company lease), and another is 375 acres. All of these tracts border a local river and are about as good as it gets here for deer and turkeys. The 400 and 900 acres tracts are leased by me. The 400 acres is family and invites only. The 900 acres..I have 7 members (all are LE officers from central Florida). The 375 acres is owned by a close friend and I basically have the run of the place.

I also have access to a fantastic 1000 acre tract (4 years now) on the upper reaches of the same river as down near home (its about 100 miles north of my residence). This tract is privately owned and myself and 2 friends lease it.

I çount my blessings daily as I know that not many have access to such great hunting. I am truly humbled by how it has all worked out over the years for me to end up with access like this.....as I will never own my own hunting land...I'm too old and too poor...but I know I would've been a great hunting landowner. Oh my...the $$ I've spent on other's land to improve the quality of hunting.

Unless your active in 'managing' these properties with time and $$$ investments, many folks don't get it. I've had lifelong friends who want to know why they haven't gotten an invite to my place, yet they have 3-5000 acres that they can hunt that I've never seen. I just happen to have bought property in an area that has been well known over the years to have great genetics and hunters with the foresight to start management programs ahead of other areas.

To those friends who have offered me a hand without asking, they've been invited and in many ways rewarded.

I was hanging Posted signs along the tar road in early summer and had a buddy stop to talk. Asked what it would take to get an invite. I told him to bring some chestwaders the next day as I was doing my entire back line and give me a hand. Never showed and didn't get a call.

Had a group of friends approach me about cutting off a 5 acre part of one of my fields so 'we' could dove hunt. I broke it down as follows: $65 / acre that I'm losing from the farmer ($65x5 = $325 per year) + $125 per acre for lime / fertilizer / seed (another $625) and I'd throw in my tractor equipment and time in for free to create the plot. So $950 / 5 hunters = $190 per hunter. To the person, they each bawlked at it.

So yeah, I definetly understand the $$$ that I've spent to improve the hunting and I'm not giving any of it away unless it's earned back in some manner.

I have buddies that invite me deer hunting and I go just to see a different view and spend time with them. I’ve seen some NICE deer but never pulled the trigger. I could shoot every deer on the place and they’d be ok with it, probably, lol. But, I know the work they put in and I just give scouting reports. They even make fun of me asking if I’m bringing my bow or just a camera. I won’t shoot their deer, but give me an opportunity at a turkey and I’ll be set up under a bird at 0300 waiting for daylight…and they know it!!

Ok, I’m out of YouTube prison. Here’s a sorta funny video. I’d bragged I was going to go shoot does until I ran out of arrows. I was back in the lock on and wouldn’t you know it, all that came through was bucks!! Well, watch the video and see my dilemma…

I think rule #1 is you gotta have both a bow and an arrow in your hand if you're gonna bowhunt.

Hope to have a little fun this year shooting suppressed. Hope some kids have some fun too with it. Already have one and just waiting on ATF to approve the other. Hopefully I’ll have it in time for rifle season or I’ll just take it off the Thermal rifle and screw it to the daytime rifle.

Good stuff WB.

Doesn't appear to be much for natural browse in those clips. What do the deer eat down there?

Ag crops?

Heck man, everything you see is natural browse. I thought the same thing until the manger told me to get a pen and pad and get on the ranger one day. I wrote down every plant/brush/sticky thing he pointed out and came home and looked it up. Everything out there blooms, leaves, matures, at different times and produces more protein than anything you could plant or feed and it’s natural and year round, year after year.
Our mature bucks will be 200-225. We’ve killed late October does at 150lbs. The only planting that’s done on a yearly basis is the dove field and it’s only been the last 3-4 years.

With that said, there is a field to the North of the Planatation that’s cotton two years then peanuts a year. There’s a field to the West at the very back in of the plantation. I know they feed on the field to the North and our browntop, but mainly its natural browse and soft and hard mast crops. Plenty of oaks, persimmons, plums, scuplins, etc.
It the winter the Wiregrass dies and mats out almost providing an insulated covering. Under that cover, green grass shoots grow and the deer know about it. It my lock-on stand videos, that plant with berries is American Beauty Berry…about 21% protein. We have some stands of it so thick and deer will walk in and all you’ll see is branches moving. We don’t plant down here mainly because Mother Nature provides everything for them.

Don't forget the fact that controlled burning keeps deer browse plant species at a palatable growth stage.

If no fire, most of the southern foliage would grow out of reach and/or become too tough to be optimum browse.

Every native shrub and herbaceous species we have in southern Georgia is fire adapted and many are fire dependent...and produce their best nutritional benefits to wildlife thru the use of fire.

Dang..., sorry WB. Didn't mean for that to seem insulting. I forgot you are in the deep south where things can grow all year.

Up north, we think of « browse« as woody growth, (new trees/ shrubs).
Apology for the screw up.

Nah man, no apologies necessary. My first time out there I thought what do these things eat? Nothing but pines and brush. Then I was “learnt” on it all. Still will watch deer hit on something and have to check it out when I get out of the stand and look it up. It is truly crazy once you realize what’s all out there. I think what really blew me away was the actual amount of nutrients each plant has and at what times of the year. It’s like it was almost planned to happen that way, lol.
My son has fields of ragweed on his plantation that you could hide a tractor in and claim it on insurance as stolen. Deer will actually live in those fields all day and only come out right before dark or you might catch them at first light heading back in.

We have 42 miles of feed trails on 2500ac that are fed every 2 weeks during the colder months and every 4 weeks during the warmer months. We use grain sorghum just for the quail as a supplemental feed and I feed peanuts for deer year round as a supplemental feed in various spots on the plantation. Does it make a difference? I’d like to think it gives them a little something extra or like a snack, lol.

I will tell you this, if plums ripened and fell during deer season, I would be sitting over them. I have never seen deer flock to any soft mast like that. I think they just bed under the trees and wait for them to fall and don’t leave until the last one is gone.

And all that ^^^^ would start changing in about 4 years without fire.

Been there...done that...got the t-shirt....lol

Yes sir. We are on a 2 year burn rotation. Some areas are 3 year. Inside feed trails one year, outside feed trails the next. Always have available cover for the quail. What’s crazy is studies show that turkeys “generally” nest in the previous years burn, so less chance of destroyed nest by fire.

Deer will be in a fresh burn about as fast as the quail and turkeys. Once everything starts greening up it’s like close to a thousand acres of fresh supple greens with no planting or tilling, lol

Here’s another video from the lock-on. He knees something is there, but even with a bow it would’ve been too late. He does seem the like that Bowhunters Obsession I sprayed in while walking to the stand.



[video:youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/urEzBSpt7J4?si=2CzDbS5IvmM8nk_G[/video]

Great thread wanna. Ever buck can be a trophy to someone. Story behind the hunt might want people to mount one. My theory "your money your decision" no matter how big. Only rule I have is try to kill the biggest deer on the property you hunt. BUT sometimes issues come up. Health problems, family emergencies ect. Person might not have the time to put in to hold out for one deer . Last year I shot the 2nd biggest deer on my hunting spot because of a kidney stone reminding me it needed busting. Did I mount it. Nope . Going to have to be a special deer for me to mount another one. Giant rack, weird antlers, or life time memory behind the hunt.

We don’t really care what’s killed, except if you’re just wanting to kill. If that’s the case you can take an entire box of bullets to the stand with you and lay down the does. Kill a mature buck regardless of score.

Did a little riding today since I got the fluid drained and shot yesterday and I was able to walk!!

First stop was the Sawtooths. For some reason they didn’t produce last year. The appear to be doing ok this year.




Next stop was the Partridge Pea field. Plenty of cover for deer and quail. Plenty of insects and an open understory for broods. Plenty of leaves for deer and plenty of seed for both into Fall and Winter.





Next was the two pecan trees I know about. One has an oak right beside it that also producing. I don’t hunt this other than watching from the road…hogs and deer eat pecans. Along with turkeys too.





I’ll post the dove field in the next post.

A little stupid and long, but just a video of the dove field that appears to be doing well…